Directed by Leonard Nimoy
Story by Leonard Nimoy & Harve Bennett
Screenplay by Seve Meerson, Peter Krikes, Harve Bennett & Nicholas Meyer
Music by Leonard Rosenman
Stardate 8390.0
Premiered November 26, 1986
Directed by
Leonard Nimoy
Story by
Leonard Nimoy & Harve Bennett
Screenplay by
Seve Meerson, Peter Krikes, Harve Bennett & Nicholas Meyer
Music by
Leonard Rosenman
Stardate 8390.0
Premiered
November 26, 1986
Amanda Greyson; Human wife to Ambassador Sarek and mother of Commander Spock.
Sarek; Vulcan Ambassador and father to Spock.
Dr.
Gillian Taylor; Twentieth-century
marine biologist and assistant director of the Cetacean Institute on
Earth. Taylor supervised the care of George and Gracie, two humpback
whales living in captivity at the institute. She was distraught when
the two whales had to be released into the open ocean, but she later
traveled, with Kirk and the two humpbacks to the 
23rd
century, where she earned a post on a science vessel.
Saavik; Starfleet officer who, as a cadet, served as navigator on the Starship Enterprise during the Project Genesis crisis in 2285. Saavik, a Vulcan, had been mentored by Spock, who counseled her that tolerance of her human colleagues was logical. Following the Genesis crisis, Saavik, along with David Marcus, transferred to the U.S.S. Grissom for further study of the Genesis Planet. Saavik later returned to planet Vulcan.
Federation
President; Leader
of the representative council governing the United Federation of
Planets. The Federation president warned all spaceships to stay away
from Earth when that planet 
environment
was being devastated 
by
an alien space probe in 2286.
Admiral Cartwright; Starfleet Command officer. Cartwright presided over emergency operations from Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco when an alien probe threatened the Earth in 2286.
Klingon
Ambassador; Representative
of the Klingon government in 2286. The ambassador attempted to
secure the extradition of James Kirk so that he could be brought to
trial for alleged crimes, including the theft of a Klingon
spacecraft. The Klingon ambassador believed, mistakenly, that Kirk
had participated in the development of Project Genesis with the
intent of using it as a weapon against 
the
Klingon people.
Dr. Nichols; Plant manager at Plexicorp, a 2Oth-century company based in San Francisco, on Earth Nichols developed the molecular matrix for transparent aluminum in 1986.
An
enormous alien probe on a heading for Earth encounters and
completely cripples the USS Saratoga, continuing unchecked toward
Earth, where a high-ranking Klingon Ambassador is trying to convince
the Federation Council that the Genesis device was, in fact, a weapon
designed to eradicate the Klingon species. The Ambassador promises
that there will be no peace between the Klingons and Federation while
Kirk lives.
In the meantime, Kirk and the rest of his crew, excluding Saavik, who stays behind, leave Vulcan in their hijacked Bird of Prey, which McCoy has renamed the "Bounty". While en route to Earth, they receive an emergency transmission informing them that Earth's defenses have been neutralized by a huge vessel of unknown origin, and that the alien ship is beginning to destroy the atmosphere and oceans, all the time transmitting indecipherable sounds. Analyzing a recording of the sounds transmitted by the alien ship, Spock determines that the probe can not be responded to because the sounds are apparently analogous to songs sung by humpback whales - extinct in the 21st century. Kirk decides to risk a slingshot around the sun to send the Bounty into a time warp to Earth of the past and bring back whales to repopulate the species and, more importantly, respond to the probe.
The
Bounty cloaks and lands in San Francisco, 1986, and the crew splits
into three teams. Kirk and a thinly disguised Spock set out to find
the whales, which Kirk decides to take from the Cetacean Institute, a
museum devoted to whales.
There, Kirk meets Dr. Gillian Taylor as she leads a tour of the
Institute, during which she shows off the Institute's two whales,
George and Gracie. Gillian also reveals that the whales will have to
be released into the open sea due to the cost of keeping them in
captivity. Spock dives into the whale tank and mind-melds with one of
the whales, finding that Gracie is pregnant, but Gillian throws them
out of the Institute, only to find them walking back to Golden Gate
Park and picks them up again.
Chekov and
Uhura find the Navy's USS Enterprise and sneak in to collect photon
spillage from the ship's nuclear reactor in 
order
to replenish the dilithium crystals on the Bounty for the return
trip to the 23rd century, while Scotty, Sulu and McCoy seek out the
materials necessary to build a tank for the whales and their water in
the Bounty. Scotty's team visits a Plexiglas factory, where he trades
the "recipe" for transparent aluminum (common in the 23rd
century) for the necessary materials and the loan of a helicopter to
return the tank walls to the Bounty. (Scotty insists no damage is
being done to history - perhaps the director of the factory to whom
Scotty revealed the "secret" is the inventor!)
Uhura and Chekov gather the necessary energy to ready the Bounty for its next time warp, but they are detected on the carrier. Chekov gives Uhura the collection device and has her beamed back to the Bounty, while he is captured and briefly interrogated. Chekov escapes again, but is seriously wounded and taken to a hospital.
Kirk,
having befriended Gillian and learned how upset she is that
"her" whales are about to be turned loose, gets the
frequency to radio tags that the whales will be carrying so
scientists can track them, but even Gillian doesn't know the exact
location to which the whales will be taken. Kirk receives the news of
Chekov's injury and, with McCoy, mounts a rescue operation which will
require the help of Gillian. They enter the hospital disguised as
surgeons, and McCoy performs a quick fix returning Chekov to normal
after expressing alarm that 20th century medicine would have called
for a hole to be drilled into Chekov's skull. They "kidnap"
Chekov from the hospital 
and
take him back to the Bounty, where Gillian stows away by jumping
Kirk just as he is beamed aboard. The Bounty lifts off and reaches
the whales' coordinates in the Pacific, only to find a whaling ship
is in hot pursuit of George and Gracie. Kirk orders the Bounty to
decloak, which frightens the poachers away while the two whales are
beamed aboard. The Bounty makes it back to the 23rd century and
crash-lands in San Francisco Bay after being disabled by the probe,
and Kirk releases the whales into the ocean. George and Gracie
re-establish contact between Earth's whales and the aliens - a
dialogue which had been in progress before man even existed - and
Gillian begins her new life as a Federation cetacean biology
specialist. Kirk and the others are exonerated for all charges
against them concerning the theft and destruction of the starship
Enterprise, except for Kirk, who is demoted to Captain and given
command of a new, more advanced vessel: the new Enterprise, NCC-1701-A.
Starfleet Personnel
Old San Francisco
Kirk
-- William Shatner
Spock
-- Leonard Nimoy
McCoy
-- DeForest Kelley
Scott
-- James Doohan
Chekov
-- Walter Koenig
Uhura
-- Nichelle Nichols
Sulu
-- George Takei
Amanda
-- Jane Wyatt
Gillian --
Catherine Hicks
Sarek
-- Mark Lenard
Lt. Saavik --
Robin Curtis
Federation
Council President -- Robert Ellenstein
Klingon
Ambassador -- John Schuck
STARFLEET PERSONNEL
Admiral
Cartwright -- Brock Peters
Communications
Officer -- Michael Snyder
Display
Officer -- Michael Berryman
Saratoga
Science Officer -- Mike Brislane
Commander
Rand --
Grace Lee Whitney
Alien
Communications Officer -- Jane Wiedlin
Yorktown
Captain -- Vijay Amritraj
Commander
Chapel --
Majel Barrett
Saratoga
Helmsman -- Nick Ramus
Controller #1
-- Thaddeus Golas
Controller #2
-- Martin Pistone
IN OLD SAN FRANCISCO
Bob Briggs --
Scott DeVenney
Lady in Tour
-- Viola Simpson
1st Garbage
Man -- Phil Rubenstein
2nd Garbage
Man -- John Miranda
Antique Store
Owner -- Joe Knowland
Waiter -- Bob Starlate
Cafe Owner --
Everett Lee
Joe -- Richard Harder
Nichols --
Alex Henteloff
Pilot -- Tony Edwards
Elderly
Patient -- Eve Smith
Intern #1 --
Tom Mustin
Intern #2 --
Greg Karas
Young Doctor
-- Raymond Singer
Doctor #1 --
David Ellenstein
Doctor #2 --
Judy Levitt
Usher --
Theresa E. Victor
Jogger --
James Menges
Punk on Bus --
Kirk Thatcher
NAVEL PERSONNEL
FBI Agent --
Jeff Lester
Shore Patrol
-- Joe Lando
CDO -- Newell Tarrant
Electronic
Technician -- Mike TimoneyJeffery Martin
Marine Sargent
-- 1st Sargent Joseph Naradzay, USMC
Marine
Lieutenant -- 1st Lieutenant Donald W. Zautcke, USMC